Clonony Castle - Co. Offaly - Southern Ireland
Clonony Castle was built in the Norman style some time around the beginning of the 16th century by the McCoughlan clan and rises over fifty feet into the sky, dominating this beautiful area near to Shannon Harbour, a busy port on the Shannon River.
The Castle was still being lived in until relatively recent times. It sits on a rocky outcrop at the SE corner of a bawn. (A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house being the anglicised version of the Irish word badhún meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure".)
Although the North Wall is missing, there are remains of flanking towers at the North West, South West and South East corners. All the flanking towers are well provided with defensive loops.
The castle was mainly constructed from the local limestone on a limestone bedrock foundation.
The main ghost associated with Clonony castle is that of a man, surrounded by a strange, hazy, eerie glow who stands at the top of the tower wearing old-fashioned clothes. This tall, skeleton like figure is regularly seen by people driving on the road by the castle and the description of the man given by various people, has always been the same giving some credence to the validity of this claim.